1978 Greco EG-700T — “Chimera Tiger”

As you can see in the photos, this guitar is half strikingly flamed maple and half completely plain — a dramatic contrast I’ve never seen before.
I decided to nickname it the “Chimera Tiger.”

Traditionally, the top wood on a Les Paul is made using the bookmatched method — a single piece of maple is sliced in half and opened like a book so that the two mirrored surfaces form the guitar’s top, creating symmetrical grain patterns.
However, if one half of the board proved defective — say, with a knot or blemish — the usable side was sometimes set aside and later paired with another piece of maple that matched either in color (color match) or in grain direction (texture match).
This practice, collectively known as “flitch matching,” could occasionally yield results like this: one side highly figured, the other almost plain.

That said, this phenomenon was more common in Gibson guitars of the era.
In Japan during the late 1970s, manufacturers like Greco did not seem to place as much emphasis on the figuring of the top wood as they would in later years.
A one-sided flame like this was probably seen as unremarkable at the time — though today, it gives the guitar a fascinating individuality.

This model features a two-piece mahogany body, maple neck, striped ebony fingerboard, MH804 tuners, U2000 pickups, and pearloid position markers.
Generally speaking, Greco guitars with ebony fingerboards are EG-700 grade or higher, and those with mother-of-pearl inlays start from the EG-800 level.

Weight: 4.42 kg (including strings)
(Updated August 24, 2016)